Tuesday, March 24, 2015

"Immediate liberty for the arrested campesinas & campesinos
More than 5 thousand in all of Honduras

Declaration on the wave of criminalization against the campesinos and campesinas of La Paz, Honduras

March 23, 2015, Vía Campesina Honduras

Campesinos and campesinas, members of the National Center of Rural Workers (CNTC) accompanied by Vía Campesina carried out a march on Monday through the main streets in the province of La Paz as pressure to demand that the government end the violence against the campesinos.

The countryside has stopped being an important sector for governments since the neoliberal system defines its plan for development based on the industry of agro-exportation, the financial system, mining, tourism, sweat-shops maquiladores and other things and agriculture is left abandoned.

The agrarian and alimentation crisis is a true human tragedy, the situation in the countryside worsens day after day due to the lack of a true legal framework (to protect it).

In order to resolve the agrarian problem and guarentee support to the small farming sector of the country, last April 9 the Law for an Integral Agrarian Reform with Gender Equity for Food Sovereignty and Rural Development, was introduced (to the Congress); it has remained tabled by the legislature.

The campesino movement continues to be repressed on the land, our fields are destroyed, we are beaten, they burn our houses; from 2014 to the present 15 campesino groups in different municipalities, belonging to the CNTC have suffered violent evictions and another 34 evictions have been announced to take place soon.

As of this moment around 5 thousand campesinos and campesinas at the national level have legal charges against them and more than 700 are women. Just in La Paz of 48 campesino groups 46 of the groups are in legal processes; we have more than 500 people with probationary measures, 161 are women and there are 10 comrades in prison condemned to more than 6 years. They are:

During the protest by the campesino movement the General Secretary of the CNTC, Franklin Almendarez denounced the political persecution aimed at the local group leaders and campesino leaders in La Paz, "our compañeros are followed in public places and public transportation by the police authorities and people dressed as civilians, we also want to sound the alert to the fact of the confabulation of the National Police with the big landowners to facilitate armed civilians executing evictions and persecuting the campesino groups" he stated.

"In the same way, we vigorously denounce that government institutions such as the Institute for Forest Conservation (ICF) and the National Agrarian Institute (INA) deny us the right to Agrarian Reform, dismisses as "without cause" the filings for titles to the land made by our compañeros, denying them access to natural resources and violating Accord 169 signed and ratified by the Government of Honduras with the International Labor Organization (OIT). The peoples affected must have the right to decide their own priorities regarding the process of development to the extent that this affects their lives, beliefs, institutions and spiritual well being and the lands that they occupy or use in some way, and (the right) to control to the degree possible their own economic, social and cultural development. (Accord 169, Article 7(1). "

For his part, the General Coordinator of Vía Campesina Honduras, Rafael Alegría stated that, "this march has been organized in La Paz to demand that the government end the criminalization of the campesino movement, we want this day to make history and its voice reach the government to say that we need them to give us land so that the campesinos have a parcel of land to work, that the Law for an Integral Agrarian reform with Gender Equity for Food Sovereignty and Rural Development that is tabled in the congress be passed immediately; the immediate liberation of the campesinos in legal proceedings and of the 11 compañeros imprisoned in Tamara and Marcala; and an immediate end to the violent evictions and the destruction of crops", he concluded.

​The march arrived to the court building in La Paz where campesinos Blanca Rodríguez Manueles, Rómulo Gáleas and Antonio Gonzales had court hearings for allegedly stealing land, they were accompanied by the Coordinator of Vía Campesina, Rafael Alegría and the General Secretary of the CNTC, Franklin Almendarez; they achieved the campesinos being freed pending the continuation of the investigation.

Afterwards the march went to the prison in La Paz where family members accompanied by congressmen from the LIBRE Party Rafael Alegría and Wilfredo Paz and Franklin Almendarez, visited the 5 young campesinos who are incarcerated there.

Monday, March 23, 2015

CNTC's Franklin Almendares explains
campesino position to landowners
claiming the campesino land

March 3rd was Honduras’ “National Campesino Day” and the government celebrated with more attacks and repression against the organized campesinos. In Santa Maria, La Paz, the CNTC ((National Center for Rural Workers) campesino group, “Juan Almendares Bonilla” was violently evicted from the land they have lived on and cultivated for 6 years. The homes and crops belonging to the 30 families were destroyed in the eviction and 15 members of the community were detained including 3 women and 2 minors. The women and children were released the same day but have to report regularly to the police station - as of March 23 Nine other members, Máximo Carrios, Luis Beltrán Aguilar, José Antonio Vásquez, Edi Benjamín Vásquez, Oscar Martínez, Esteban López, Héctor Emilio López Chicas, and Arnold Cruz López Rodríguez remained in jail (as of March 23 all were released). Then on March 9th the police detained Samuel Vazquez, a member of the group and also a member of the CNTC regional secretariat for La Paz; he was released on bail later the same day.

Campesinos meet with CNTC leaders and INA (both photos)

In late January as part of La Voz de los de Abajo accompaniment with the CNTC communities, I attended a mediation session with another campesino group and the same locally powerful landowners disputing ownership of the land of "Juan Almendares" at the regional Agrarian Institute office in Comayagua (see photos). At that session there were agreements to remeasure the lands and to attempt to settle disagreements without evictions or violence. However that campesino group reported that they had been violently evicted before and regularly harassed by unknown armed men. I spoke to the mother of a young campesino from the group who was murdered by gunman near their home. At this time the INA, which has played a very mixed role in the agrarian conflict in the past, is undergoing massive budget cuts and tasks are being turned over to the government agency called Private Property Council and the function of issuing land titles is being given to a combined public/private enterprise (Coalianza) in which the current President, Juan Orlando Hernandez, and other members of the elite are partners. At this time the INA is not providing services to the campesinos of “Juan Almendares” and the few services they provided to the campesino movement nationally are being withdrawn.

The CNTC (Central Nacional de los Trabajadores del Campo) celebrated their 30th anniversary on January 21st of this year, but they had to cancel festivities because of the number of evictions and detentions and attacks against their members. At this time besides the nine campesinos from “Juan Almendares” the following CNTC members are held in jail/prison: Omar Mejía Gálea, Benancio Palomo Chavarría, Edgardo Hernández, detained January 10, 2014 and members of the group “Buena Vista”, la Brea, Comayagua; Héctor David Gáleas López, Nery Antonio Gonzales, Ángel Arnaldo Martínez Márquez, Manuel Nicolás Domínguez, José David Aguilar Gáleas, Jacinto Bardales detained one October 11, 2013 and members of the group “Grupo 18 de Abril la Pollera”, Quilaperque, La Paz; Osmar Lara miembro of the group “Campesino Unidos para un Futuro Mejor”, Márcala, La Paz y José Isabel Morales (Chabelo) from the Campesino Movement of Aguan at Guadalupe Carney, Trujillo, Colon who has been imprisoned since 2008. There is also repression against CNTC communities in Progreso, Yoro; Cortes; Santa Barbara and Francisco Morazan. There are 2,601 members with some kind of charges against them related to their movement participation (700 are women) and there are 79 current eviction orders issued that affect 2 thousand families. In 2014 alone, 7 CNTC members were murdered because of their participation in the agrarian struggle.

Evicted community in Progreso, Yoro

2012 eviction of CNTC community, La Paz

The CNTC is being targeted around the country because it is a national organization with groups in 14 of the 18 provinces and it has refused to give up the struggle for a just agrarian reform or to give up land recuperations. Despite the fact that they have legal status (personalidad juridica) and represent more than 400 affiliated campesino communities, the Hernandez government is working to criminalize them and the campesino movement in general more than ever. Recently Franklin Almendares, the General Secretary of the CNTC, was at a meeting on agrarian matters convened by government ministers and including campesino organizations and he was told that they would not deal with "groups that don't respect private property" - i.e. the CNTC. They will, however, deal with and command groups that don't respect human life or the property of the campesinos and campesinas.
V. Cervantes- March 22: updated with new info March 24

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News Sources / Fuentes de Noticias

Radio Progreso has radio updates (Spanish only) directly from the from the front-lines of the resistance in Honduras.

Une TV is one of the only independent national TV stations in Honduras

Rights Action has been doing good reporting and commentary as events unfold and has people on the ground monitoring the situation. They are also a reliable vehicle through which to get money to the organizations fighting for the restoration of democracy in Honduras.

Defensores en línea is the best (Spanish-only) online source for regularly updated information on the violation of human rights in Honduras.

Spanish - website of the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras about the struggle of the Garifuna people and other resistance and environmental struggles.

School of the Americas Watch has good background information on the coup-plotters training at the Georgia-based School of the Americas / (also known as the School of Assasins) as well as news updates on the coup and a call to action.